Goodlatte: Unaccompanied Minor Surge Could Get Worse If Obama Reduces Enforcement Further in August

If the Obama administration decides to unilaterally adopt policies to further reduce immigration enforcement in August, the flood of unaccompanied minors and family units illegally entering the United States could worsen, according to House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA).

“This surge shows no signs of stopping and could potentially get worse if President Obama further dismantles more of our immigration laws in August,” Goodlatte said Monday.

In March Obama directed Department of Homeland Security Sec. Jeh Johnson to review the country’s deportation policies. In May he called on Johnson to delay the review’s completion until August, to allow the House of Representatives space to pass immigration reform.

Republicans say they expect the review to further water down the administration’s already lax immigration enforcement policies.

“Our entire constitutional system is threatened when the Executive Branch suspends the law at its whim and our nation’s sovereignty is imperiled when the commander-in-chief refuses to defend the integrity of its borders,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 21 Republican senators wrote in a letter to Obama in April.

The 22 senators, who wrote their letter before the flood of illegal immigration hit a fever pitch and news headlines, expressed “grave concerns” that the “enforcement review” will result in “a near complete abandonment of basic immigration enforcement and discard the rule of law and the notion that the United States has enforceable borders.”

According to Goodlatte — whose committee is holding a hearing on the recent deluge of illegal immigration into the United States this week– the surge of unaccompanied minors and family units is a crisis of Obama’s “own making” and does not appear to be settling down anytime soon.

“Word has spread around the world about the Obama Administration’s lax immigration enforcement policies and it has encouraged thousands of children, teenagers, and families from Central America to come to the United States illegally,” Goodlatte said in a statement Monday.

Wednesday afternoon the House Judiciary Committee will hear from administration officials and people who have seen the crisis first hand at a hearing entitled “An Administration-Made Disaster: The South Texas Border Surge of Unaccompanied Minors.”